1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to virtualization of computer resources and virtual resource managers, and more specifically relates to copying segments of an existing virtual resource to another virtual resource definition to simplify virtualization management.
2. Background Art
Many companies and organizations must maintain a substantial information technology (IT) infrastructure that comprises a large number of computer resources including data servers integrated together. The data servers and other computer resources are often maintained using server management software such as the Systems Director 6.1 by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). Using server management tools such as IBM's Systems Director 6.1, systems administrators can manage a large number of physical and virtual resources on multiple platforms and operating systems.
A virtual resource is a resource such as a virtual server, virtual disk drive or virtual printer. These virtual resources are deployed on a physical resource. Virtualization of these resources is used to improve the efficiency and availability of the physical resources. Multiple virtual machines with different operating systems can be run on a single physical machine. Thus a virtual server is simply a server that is deployed in virtual environment. The virtual server may be deployed with other virtual servers on a single physical machine.
Server management tools, such as that described above, typically employ a virtualization manager to create and manage images and virtual system definitions (or templates) to expedite the process of creating and deploying virtual servers. The virtualization manager allows system administrators to manage system definitions that meet specific hardware and software requirements. They can copy and customize existing images of virtual servers to create new virtual servers based on an existing virtual server definition (or template).
Even with the new tools for managing resources, virtualization management is complex and can be time consuming. New ways for simplifying virtualization management and making the task more intuitive is extremely helpful for the system administrator. Without a way to more efficiently and simply create and manage virtualization tasks of creating virtual resources, system administrators will continue to suffer from inefficient management of virtual resources using virtualization management tools.